Methodists end minister's NY same-sex wedding case

NEW YORK (AP) — A United Methodist bishop on Monday dropped the case against a retired minister accused of breaking church law by officiating his son's same-sex wedding — a dramatic decision that came just months after another minister was defrocked for the same reason.

The Rev. Thomas Ogletree, 80, a former dean of the Yale Divinity School, said he's grateful his church had decided not to put him on trial for what he called "an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love."

Bishop Martin McLee, who made the announcement at a news conference, called on church officials to stop prosecuting other pastors for marrying same-sex couples. McLee, who leads the church's New York district, said he would cease trials over the issue in his area and would organize a broad discussion about divisions among Methodists over gay relationships.

Although pleased to have his case over, Ogletree said he was "even more grateful" that the bishop vowed not to prosecute similar cases in his region, which covers 462 churches in New York and Connecticut. Ogletree lives in Guilford, Conn.

McLee's decision is considered a victory for Methodists who have defied a church law that considers homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching." Conservative Methodists have been pressing church leaders to discipline clergy who preside at gay weddings.

Ogletree presided over the wedding of his son, Thomas Rimbey Ogletree, to Nicholas Haddad on Oct. 20, 2012, at the Yale Club in New York City.

Some Methodist clergy filed a complaint against the minister after the wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times. The lead complainant was the Rev. Randall C. Paige, pastor of Christ Church in Port Jefferson Station on Long Island.

Paige issued a statement Monday saying that he's "dismayed by the settlement."

"It makes no acknowledgement of the breaking of our clergy covenant," Paige said, adding that "there are no consequences for such violation."

Paige said the decision will also further divide the church: "The impact of this settlement today will be that faithful United Methodists who support the church's teachings will feel ignored and will face their own crisis of conscience, as to whether they can continue to support a church that will not abide by its own rules."

The United Methodist Church, the second-largest U.S. Protestant group, has debated for four decades whether to recognize same-sex relationships. The denomination has more than 12 million members worldwide.

The dismissal of the case against Ogletree, a theologian noted for his work on Christian ethics, comes without conditions. The settlement does not require him to say he'll never conduct another same-sex wedding, nor does it say that what he did was wrong.

Ogletree's was the second high-profile United Methodist case in recent months over same-sex relationships. In December, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a minister from Pennsylvania, was defrocked after he officiated at his son's same-sex wedding.

At Monday's announcement in White Plains, a New York suburb, McLee said he believes church trials "produce no winners" because they "result in harmful polarization and continue the harm brought upon our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters." He invited Ogletree to participate in a public forum later this year that will include discussion of how the church deals with sexuality.

Dorothee Benz, chair of Methodists in New Directions, a grassroots organization that provided Ogletree's legal defense, called McLee's decision "a bold act of leadership for our bishop" — announced on the day the minister's trial would have started.